I saw a post floating around social media that made me roll my eyes: “The person who chooses to run outside London Marathon Results treadmill is a powerful person.”
I’m sure the poster had good intentions. But, c’mon. Do we really need to act like being warm is some kind of luxury that makes you soft?
Other Hearst Subscriptions We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back: “No. Let’s stop glorifying ‘grit.’ If the weather is bad and you’ll get a better workout in on the treadmill, run on the f***ing treadmill. Nobody’s superior because they run outside.” He nailed it.
Oversimplistic sayings that fetishize grit are all over the internet and running culture. Most of us have seen those Steve Prefontaine quotes: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” “Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.” “The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die.” (There’s no proof the late long-distance runner said the last one, but it’s commonly attributed to him.)
And then there’s people like David Goggins, the Navy SEAL–turned-ultrarunner, who is famous for his hard-nosed, unrelenting motivation. One of his most cited quotes is “I don’t stop when I’m tired, I stop when I’m done.”
Download Your Training Plan motivated countless people to lace up and train; you see their words on many lists of inspirational running quotes. But let’s not get the wrong idea. These are not phrases to live by—unless you’re looking to get burned out or injured. There’s certainly a time and place to train outside your comfort zone, but setting inconvenient rules isn’t going to help you improve. In fact, it’s probably counterproductive.
Knowing when to ease up—instead of pushing through—can be hard. I would know.
Other Hearst Subscriptions marathon build, I fell off my e-bike on the way home from the gym and banged up my knee. I didn’t think much of it until my knee started to swell that night. I took the next day off running to make sure I wasn’t doing any further damage, but as the week progressed—and my knee felt no better—I started to panic. I was scheduled to race a half marathon in two weeks, and with too much time off, I would lose fitness.
I called my coach, who calmed me down. I wanted to push through the discomfort and attempt some cross-training, but he thought rest would be best. That was hard to accept.
Ultimately, the swelling subsided, and I was able to jump back into training fairly seamlessly after 12 days off. The patience and restraint worked—although I had to scratch from the half marathon, I hit my goal of sub-2:28 at the Indianapolis Marathon two months later.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at During my last, Steve Magness, an exercise scientist and former elite running coach, explains: “We often equate toughness with persistence, but in some cases, it’s the exact opposite. Toughness is navigating the inner turmoil in order to make a good decision. Sometimes that’s to persist. Other times it’s to quit.”
If I had gritted through my knee pain and tried to force myself to run earlier, it could have led to more problems down the road. A younger, less mature version of me probably would have done that and therefore increased my risk of injury. But with time, I’ve tried to tell myself that there’s no joy in unnecessary suffering. It doesn’t make me tougher.
In his book.
For example, once or twice a training block, I do what I call a “character builder” workout, a session that’s long and perhaps difficult and almost always in bad weather conditions. It toughens me up—physically and emotionally—so other workouts don’t seem so bad. When I look back on my training block, it’s often the session that most stands out to me.
But here’s the catch: Rarely do I go into the session knowing it’ll be a “character builder.” I don’t obsessively monitor the weather. I’m not thinking about how tough it’s going to make me as I do my warmup jog.
I’ve found that I build confidence and grit by showing myself that I’m flexible. If something doesn’t go my way during the workout, I pivot. If it starts pouring, I’ll tell myself that it’s practice for a rainy race. If my legs feel flat, I’ll adjust my pace to be a little slower than prescribed.
Grit can be a superpower. But don’t chase it errantly.
Next time it’s cold, wet, and dark out, do yourself a favor and run on the treadmill. Or do run outside, if you hate the treadmill. It’s up to you. The point is, be as gritty as needed.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
